Attachment for multicolor-weft-replenishing looms



Dec- 10, 19 9- H. L. MOLLOY ET AL 1,739,164

ATTACHMENT FOR MULTICOLOR WEFT REPLENISHING LOOMS Filed March 21. 1928 der such a stacks of bobbins connect the Patented Dec. 10, 1929" HERBERT L. MOIJIJOY AND CONRAD Batiste; on MANCHESTER, HAMPSHIRE,

ASSIGNORS T0 CR'OMPTON & KNOW/IE5? .QOGM SETTS; A GORZGRATIOIF OF MASSACHUSETTS ATTACHMENT FOB MULTICGLO Application filed March 21, may

This invention relates to improvements in multicolor weft replenishing looms and it is the general object of the invention to renloom readily capable of weaving filling of but one color or kind.

The usual multicolor weft replenishing mechanism includes. a plurality of separated each of which has an individually movable control gate or cradle. There is a connection from the box motion or some mechanism operating in time with the box motion to select which color or kind of weft shall be moved to replenishing posi tion. Ordinarily no operative connection ex ists between the several cradles or gates so that but one stack of bobbins is capable of supplying weft for any given position oft-he boxes. The weft detector, however, operates to call for a change on any detecting beatirrespective of the position of the drop boxes.

It not infrequently happens that a mill equipped with multicolor weft replenishing looms desires to weave a cloth having plain filling: on the multicolor looms. It would be possible under these conditions to fill all the stacks of the magazine with the same colored bobbins and build the pattern chain so that a given number of picks could be laid by each of the shui-tles, the latter being called into action in rotation. It is found, howeveiythat the movement of the boxes requires extra effort on the part of the loom and'in some-instances operates to lower the speed at which the loom may beoperated.

In order to be able to operate under higher speed where a multicolor magazine is used to weave a plain color it is customary to'disbox motion from the'box lever and use only one box on the shifting box end of the loom. Another practice is to take the shifting boxes out and in their place insert a single box which is bolted to the lay; In either instance, however, some provision must be made to make use of thefull reserve of wei't' which the replenishing mechanism is capable of holding. It is an important object of our present invention to provide a ver y simple device which is easily applied to a multicolor weft replenishing mechanism to lt 'wEl T-itEi IillhTisfilN'G LOOKS serial- No'i 263,468.

adapt-the latter to supply the same kind of weft from all the stacks oibobbins.

The ordinary multicolor weft replenishing mechanis'm'employs a so calledcolor slide which may have two lingers to assume either two, four or six positions relatively to the upright slideson the mechanism, depending uponwhether the-loomisprovided with two, four or sixshitting. shuttle boxes. At thetime of indication of weft exhaustion the indicating fingers will be given an upward movement to raise that slide which corresponds to the active shuttle and on a subsequent pick this slide will be lowered so as to advance a full bobbin to transl er position. his a turther object of our present invention to provide a device which will be actuated by the fingers of the col-or slide to cause depression ofany vertical slide onthe repl'enishing mechanism on the pick followingindication of we ft exhaust-ion irrespective of the positiono'f-the color slide and'its fingers relatively to-the'vertical slide. As shown herein we have employed" the vertical slide members to have direct forming the subject matter of our invention,

but we do-not wish'to be held to the construction-- asthe aforesaid fingers from which the ;movements of the device are derived may operate to move the device without'the" inter- 'vent'ion of the slides.

With these'an'd other objects which willappear astli'e description proceeds, ourinvention' resides -i n' the combination and arrangement: of parts hereinafter described and set forth inthe claims;

In the accompanying drawings, wherein we have showna convenient embodiment of OlfiilllVGIllllOIl Fig: l is a: si'd e' elevationof a four-color weft replenishing meehanismtaken from the int'eri'or'of the loom showing the thirdverth cal slide from the frontin raised position preparatory to'a transfer, I

Fig.2- is a: detailed vertical section on line 2-2 ofFig; 1 p v I Fig; 3 is an" enlarged detailedhorizontal section on' li-ne 3-3 of Fig. 2;- I Y Figs. 4, 5 and 6 are diagrammatic" views showing the parts in different positions and engagement with the device of arms in which reciprocates a so-called H color slide 16. The rear portion of said slide is provided with cooperates with an angle lever 18 pivoted at 19. to afixed part of the replenishing mechanism.

A chain 20 is connected to the rearwardly 7 extending arm of the lever 18 and has conthe loom when the boxend of the loom. Under ordinary conditions when sufiicient weft is present said rod nection at the opposite side of the loom with some device not shown herein which is in time with the boxes. The chain 20 may if desired be connected directly to the box motion if the loom operates at a comparatively low rate of speed. As the box motion operates in its usual manner the lever 18 will move to give said color slide 16 a plurality of longitudinal positions. Tension spring 21 assists in moving the color slide 16 to the right as viewed in Fig. 1.

There is secured to said color slide 16 a casting 22 from which project a pair of fingers 23 and 24, respectively. Said fingers are adapted for cooperation with a plurality of vertical slide members 25, 26, 27 and 28, respectively, said fingers being so proportioned that they can cooperate with but one slide at a time.

A depending rod 29 is controlled by the weft detecting mechanism not shown and is the means by which the bar 16 is rocked or oscillated in the arms 15. Said rod 29 is given an upward movement every alternate beat of shuttle is on the shifting will remain at rest on detecting beats of the loom when the shuttle and. lay move forwardly with the shuttle on the magazine side of the 100111. When weft is substantially dcpleted, however, so that the weft detector,not shown, calls fora replenishment of weft the rod 29' will be depressed so as to rock the rod 16 in a counter-clockwise direction as 'vlewed in Fig. 2 to raise the fingers 23 and 24.

This operation will be accompanied by a raising of one or another of the vertical slides depending upon the position of the color slide. On a subsequent beatof the loom when the shuttle is on the opposite side the vertical slide will be lowered.

The reciprocation of the vertical slides efa grooved collar 17 wl1ich' fects rocking inopposite directions of the cradles C which control the releasing and delivery of a fresh supply of weft. There will be one cradle for each stack of bobbins and the corresponding vertical slide. Each cradle will normally be empty but when the exhausted vertical slide member is raised it will receive the lowermost bobbin in the corresponding stack and when said slide is lowered or returned to normal position the cradle will rock to release the bobbin previously received by the cradle, whereupon the bobbin will move to transfer position under the transferrer arm 13.

The upper portion of the plate 14 has extending therefrom apair of bearing arms 30 which afford pivotal support for a shaft 31.

A shelf 32 isse'cur'e'd to said shaft and rocks with the latter to control the operation of the transferrer arm 13 by mechanism not'shown and to lower the shuttle feeler 33 prior'to transfer. The mechanism thus far described is the ordinary multicolor weft replenishing magazine and of itself forms no part of our present invention, being substantially the same as the motion set forth in patent to Ryon No. 1,030,? 48, to which reference may be had for a further description of the structure and operation of the replenishing mechanism.

As previously stated 'itis desirable to render the magazine capable of supplying weft of one kind from all of the compartments or stacks of bobbins. In carrying our present invention into effect we disconnect the box lever that but one of the several cells in the shifting shuttle boxes will be active, the other shuttle boxes remaining idle, and we operate the loom with but one shuttle. The box motion, however, or the pattern mechanism not shown which controls it, is kept in operation and acts to give the color slide 16 regular motions at intervals of even numbers of picks. Because of thefact that the shuttle boxes are idle the chain 20 which under ordinary conditions might be connected to the boxes will of course be under control of some part which moves with the box motion, such for instance as the device shown in Patent #1,663,942 issued to Gordon. If desired the chain 20 may be controlled through the cam disks which are shown in Ryon Patent No. 1,030,748. in any event it will be necessary to have some mechanism operate during the running of the loom which will give the color slide 16 a plurality of positions relatively to the vertical slides. I

The particular device shown herein for carrying ourinvention into effect comprises a single moving element 40 having a vertical body portion 41 in which is located a guide slot 42. As shown in Fig. 3 a tie rod 43, forming part of the replenishing mechanism, extends through the slot 42 to guide said element in its vertical-movements and the nut 44 from the box motion not shown so on the tie rod restrainsundesired movement of the element in a direction parallel to the length of the tie rod. The upper'en'd' of'said element has a downwardly bent spaced guide finger 45 which extends through a slot 46 formed in the plate 14. Said finger 45 extends downwardly to have engagement with the inner surface 47 of the plate 14 as shown clearly in Fig. 2. In this way the element 40 is guided in its reciprocating movements and isheld against lateral motion. The finger 45 may substantially fill the slot 46 to efiect the latter purpose.

Said element is provided with a pair of upper crossbars 48 and 49, respectively, the bar 48 lying over and being adapted for engagement with either one of the vertical slide members-25 or 26'while the bar 49 is similarly placed with respect to members 27 and 28. Thelower end of the element has a horizontally extending shelf Jortion 50'which is positioned for engagement with one or the other of the fingers 23 or 24 when said element is in raised position.

Assuming that the parts are in the position indicated diagrammatically in Fig. 4, the vertical slide members will all be down and the element 40 will also be in lower position. The fingers on the color slide will be so placed as to control slide 27. If under these conditions weft exhaustion is indicated the slide 27 will be-raised from the position indicated in Fig. 4 to that shown in Fig. l. The effect of this movement will beto elevate the element 40 so that it will assume the position shown in Fig. l and indicated diagrammatically in Fig. 5. Because of the factthat there is but one shuttle it is necessary that the slide 27 be depressed on the next beat of the loom, irrespective of the position of the color slide 16, and it is for-this reason that the shelf 50 is of sufficient length to beinposition for engagement with one or the other of the fingers 23 or 24 when the element is raised. On the beat of the loom subsequent to that 011 which slide 27 was raised, therefore, one or the other of the fingers23 or 24 will engage-theshelf 50 to depress the latter, restoring the same to the position shown in Figs. 4 and 6. This operation is accompanied by a lowering of the slide 27 due to the bar 49 and a constant delivery ofthe lowermost bobbin in the stack corresponding to said slide 27; Transfer of said delivery bobbin will thereafter take place in the usual manner. It isto be understood that when in normal position the element 40 is out of the range of influence of the color slide as the latter-moves angularly.

As previously stated, the releasing of the bobbin which has been indicated for transfer must be independent of the longitudinal position. of the color slide and the reason for this is indicated diagrammatically in 4, 5 and 6. In Fig; 4 slide 27 as previously stated is positioned for engagement with the of saidmembers and effective to lif.

finger 24 and when the. detector not shown indicates for a change of bobbins said finger will move upwardly from the position shown in- Fig. 4 to the full line position shown in Fig. 5. If, upon the next pick, the lower slide should shift to the right so that the lingers will assume the dotted line position shown in Fig. 5 the shelf 50 would nevertheless lie under the finger 24 and would be moved downwardly from the position shown in Fig. 5 to that shown in Fig. 6 despite the fact that the slide 27 is out of operating alignment with either of the fingers. lVhile the operation has been described in connection with but one of the slides yet the parts are so related that any of the slides may be raised on any detecting beat of the loom and will be depressed on the next beat of the loom independently of the position of the color slide.

The color slide and therefore the finger 28 and 24 will be moved relatively to the vertical slides in a predetermined order dependent upon the pattern mechanism and it may happen that several successive transfers will be effected by bobbins drawn from the same,

stack, but the variation in the number of picks on the bobbins and also the slight variation in the operation of the weft detector in very improbable that all the bobbins of one stack will be transferred without drawing bobbins from the remaining sta ks. We find as a matter of fact in the practical application of our device that a large majority of reserve bobbins will be drawn from the mageaire it Zine before any one stack is entirely depleted...

From the foregoing it will be seen that we have provided a simple attachment for multicolor weft replenishing mechanism which permits the same to be used when a single kind of filling is to be woven. It will further be seen that transfer of a bobbin necessarily follows closely upon indication of exhaus on of the shuttle and that the position of the color slide doesnot interfere with the proper discharge of bobbins inasmuch as the color slide is efiective to depress any of the tical slides on non-detecting beats of the loom.

Having thus described our inven"- be apparent that changes and mod may be made therein by those skills art without departing from the s scope of the invention and we do not w i be limited to the details herein disclosed but what we claim is:

1. In a multicolor weft anism operating with' a plurality of separate stacks of reserve bobbins and having a slide member for each stack, a device to have operative relation with but one of the mcmbe at a time but movable to cooperate v said members upon substantial exhaus on of weft, and means normally inactive w.-- respect to the device to be moved and. movablev replenishing mechat substantial exhaustion of weft by one of said slide members into active position relatively to said device when said one member is raised, said device operating to engage the means to lower the same and cause return of any member to normal position.

. 2. in a multicolor weft replenishing mechanism having a color slide device movable longitudinally and having a regular angular movement in one direction on non-detecting beats of the loom and having an angular movement in the other direction on indicat ing detecting beats of the loom at substantial weft exhaustion, a plurality of sliding members to be related one at a time to said color slide device to be moved from normal to indicating position at substantial exhaustion of weft by said color slide device, said cevice capable of cooperating with any of the members, and means normally inoperative relatively to the device to be moved by any one of the members which is moved by said device into a position to be engagec by said device when the latter has its regular angular movement on non-detecting beats oi the loom to cause return to normal position 01"- any member which may be in indicating position 3. In a multicolor welt replenishing mechanism having a color slide movable longitudinally and having a regular angular movement in one direction on non detecting beats of the loom and having an angular movement in the other direction on indicating detecting beats of the loom at substantial weft exhaustion, a plurality of sliding members to be related one at a time to said device to be moved from normal to indicating position at substantial exhaustion of weft by said device, said device capable of cooperating with any of the members, means normally out of operative relation with r spect to the device to be moved by a slide into operative relation with respect to the device, mechanism to move said means whenever the color slide has an angular movement corresponding to indication of weft exhaustion, said means thereby being moved into operative relation with respect to the color slide to be returned by the latter to normal position on the next regular angular movement of the.

color slide, and a second means cooperatively related to the first means to cause movement of any sliding member in indicating position back to normal position when said first named means is returned to normal position by the color slide. 1

i. In a multicolor wait replenishing mechanism having a color slide movable longitudinally and having a regular angular movement in one direction'on non-detecting beats of the loom and having an angular mov; ment in the other direction on indicating de tecting beats of the loom at substantial weft exhaustion, a plurality of slide members to be related one at a time to said device to bemoved from normal to indicating position at substantial exhaustion of weft by said device, said device capable of cooperating with any of the members, a sliding element mounted on the said members, whereby said element may be moved from normal to indicating position by any one of the members at indication of substantial exhaustion, said element having another portion to be brought into the range of movement or" said color slide whenever said sliding element is moved to indicating position by any of said members, whereby on the followin re ular an ular movement of a b t) O the color slide on a non-detecting beat of the loom said element will be returned to normal position and cause return of any member in indicating position to normal position.

5. In a multicolor weft replenishing mechanism having a color slide movable longitudinally and having a regular angular movement in one direction on non-detecting beats of the loom and having an angular movement in the other direction on indicating detecting beats of the loom at substantial weitexhaustion, a plurality of slide members to be related one at a time to said device to be moved from normal to indicating position at substaial exhaustion of weft by said device, said device capable of cooperating with any of the members, an element slidably mounted on the weft replenishing i echanism, said element having two portions one of which is in position to be engaged by all of said members to cause movement of said element from normal toindicating position when any one of the members is moved to indicating position by the color slide at substantial exhaustion indication, said element having another portion which is brought into operative position with respect to the color slide when said element is raised to indicating position, said second'portion to be engaged by the color slide on its next regular angular movement to lower said element to normal position to cause return of any member in indicating position to normal position.

6. In a multicolor wei t replenishing mechanism having a color slide movable longitudinally and having a regular angular movement in one direction on non-detecting beats i transierrer mechanism and having a portion to be operatively related to all of latter has element from normal to indicating position when any one of the members is moved to indicating position by the color slide at substantial exhaustion indication, said element having another portion which is brought into operative position with respect to the color slide when said element is raised to indicating position, said second portion to be engaged by the color slide on its next regular angular movement to lower said element to normal position to cause return of any member in indicating position to normal position, said color slide being effective to cause return of the element to normal position after the been moved to indicating position irrespective of the relative position of said color slide with respect to any of the members.

7. In a multicolor weft replenishing mechanism having bobbins arranged in a plurality of separate stacks and having a control member for each stack, movable mechanism to have operative relation with said members one at a time todetermine which member shall operate, means to initiate replenishment upon indication of substantial exhaustion from any selected stack of bobbins, and means common to all the members at all times and engageable by the movable mechanism to insure releasing movement of the member corresponding to the indicating stack on the next beat of the loom irrespective of the position of the movable mechanism relatively to the member.

8. In a weft replenishing mechanism for looms having a plurality of stacks of bobbins and a separate controlling member for each stack together with movable mechanism to be related to said members one at a time to cause initiation of weft replenishment at substantial exhaustion of weft, means common to all the members at all times and engageable by the movable mechanism to cause movement of any member which has been moved to indicating position to insure completion of the bobbin release on the next beat of the loom following indication of weft exhaustion irrespective of the position of said movable mechanism relatively to the members.

9. An attachment for a weft replenishing mechanism having a longitudinally and angularly movable color slide and a plurality of reserve weft controlling slide members, said attachment having a surface for engagement with one of the members to be moved from normal to indicating position on indication of substantial weft exhaustion, and said attachment having another surface to be engaged by the color slide when the same has an angular movement to restore the attachment to normal position to return any indicating member from indicating to normal position.

10. An attachment for a weft replenishing mechanism having a longitudinally and angularly movable color slide together with a pinrality of reserve weft controlling members, said attachment having a surface by which said attachment may be moved from normal to indicating position by a force derived from the color slide when the latter has an angular movement in one direction, and said attachment having another surface to have motion imparted thereto by a force derived by the color slide when the latter has an angular movement in the opposite direction, said sec ond named surface being efiective to cause return of the attachment and any member in indicating position to normal position.

In testimony whereof we have hereunto affixed our signatures.

HERBERT L. MOLLOY.

CONRAD BELISLE. 

